Pre-hole Friction Stir Spot Welding (PFSSW) for dissimilar welding of AA2219 to AA3003 sheets

The present study introduces an upper sheet Pre-hole Friction Stir Spot Welding (PFSSW) process for joining AA3003 and AA2219 aluminum alloys to remove keyhole, which is the main drawback during the friction stir spot welding (FSSW) process. The attained data revealed that the PFSSW process has a substantial impact on the mechanical properties of the joint and weld microstructure. It was also found that the tensile/shear strength of the specimen welded by PFSSW increased approximately 50% in comparison with the conventional FSSW, which can be ascribed to the potent metallurgical bonding and fascinating mixing features between base alloys.